'We had all being maintaining radio silence to disguise our position from our competitors'

'We had all being maintaining radio silence to disguise our position from our competitors'

Mike Mahon remembers the last leg of the London Sydney Air race.

Mike Mahon

Trinity College Dublin

1969

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Mike Mahon

Work and Employment

Life Story

Australia

1960s

We spent a very merry Christmas and New year in Adelaide. The final sector of the race was to Bankstown ( Sydney ), with a compulsory stop over of one hour at Griffiths. Using the handicap system the organizers staggered the take off times so that all the aircraft would arrive simultaneously , It was a disaster at Griffiths, ATC was just a temporary set up and the controller declared the airfield closed in a panic situation. All aircraft managed to land safely after much confusion. There ensued an argument between the race organizers and the Australian DCA, and the planned grand finale was postponed for 24 hrs. Flagged of for the final race to Sydney at 0040z. The arrival procedure was to call ATC at a designated point for onward clearance and landing instructions. The Blitz of Sydney was about to commence. As we approached , we tuned in to the allocated frequency and were greeted by an eerie silence. Where was everybody? Suddenly the airwaves burst into life as one aircraft called in. Immediately the frequency was jammed as all scrambled to get a call in. We had all being maintaining radio silence to disguise our position from our competitors, but everyone else had the same idea The poor ATC controller did a great job in getting us all safely down on three parallel runways 29 Left, Right, and Centre despite a few go - around. The London to Sydney Air Race was over, and what a spectacular finish, over 60 aircraft landing in about ten minutes.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)